


How Do You Sleep?

by orphan_account



Series: Harry Potter - Zombie Apocalypse [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Oliver Wood Needs a Hug, Percy Weasley needs a hug, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-23 05:00:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18542767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It’s November when the reports and cases start. A new plague, taking Africa by storm - the disease spread by saliva in open wounds, biting. At first they call it rabies, but the bite kills those afflicted. But then they come back, or so it goes.It’s June when everything collapses. Society itself, disappearing in less than a year. All of London is flooded with dead, there is no “safe house” or government camps to protect them. They are on their own.





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plague spreads.

It’s November when the reports and cases start. A new plague, taking Africa by storm - the disease spread by saliva in open wounds, biting. At first they call it rabies, but the bite kills those afflicted. But then they come back, or so it goes. 

Molly keeps a wary eye on the news regarding the plague but does little else. With modern medicine the antidote will surely be found in no time at all. Anyways, it doesn’t concern her, being all the way in Africa. Of course Bill is in Egypt but he knows how to take care of himself, and it things get too bad he’ll come back home. That’s what she tells herself.

It’s January when Bill flies home. He’s taking a break from work, he seems shaken. He tosses and turns at night, when he finally opens up to her he gives disturbing descriptions of the afflicted. 

“They were mad, completely mad mum. And they aren’t lying on the telly - people who are bit die and come back. It’s scary, nothing stops them except blowing their brains out. A hoard of them showed up at work and… god mum it’s the most scared I’ve ever been. I thought I was going to die, if the police hadn’t shown up when they did… they say they’ve got it handled but they don’t.”

It’s February when reports start popping up in Asia. People are starting to get scared, entire cities in Africa are filled with the dead. The United States is trying to take action, they want to bomb the entire continent. Iran and Turkey are trying to set up barricades.

It’s April when North America goes dark, in less then two weeks of the infection spreading no contact has taken place between them and Europe. Asia is filled with the dead, China is done for. Molly is worried. There is nowhere to go, the rich are taking planes to isolated islands, taking with them their security and their money. Charlie flew home a week ago, he said it was a visit but Molly’s worried. There hasn’t been any reports of the dead in Europe yet, apart from Spain. Britain has set up a barricade and walls around London, to keep the dead out of a populated place ahead of time. It’s nowhere near complete.

It’s May when Molly decides it’s only a matter of time before they reach them. Yesterday one of them escaped quarantine and found its way to the burrow. She had looked into it’s eyes, decaying, skin drooping from its figure; it chased her, not horribly but had walked towards her growling and trying to grab her. She’d screamed, locked herself in the house, saved when Arthur had found an old rifle and shot the things brains out. She worries now, ever since an infected made it past endless security and onto a flight to Europe, nowhere seems safe. She called her remaining children home from boarding school early. Arthur and she takes them into town and they buy everybody a firearm, despite how broke they are. She doesn’t even protest when she notices Fred shoplifting bullets.

It’s June when everything collapses. Society itself, disappearing in less than a year. All of London is flooded with dead, there is no “safe house” or government camps to protect them. They are on their own. They stay in their home, the burrow and eat everything until the food runs out. Everybody is worrying about somebody. 

This however, was only beginning


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy wanders off.

Four months later

“Come on!” hissed a blue eyed redhead, anxiously looking over his shoulder,”We haven’t got long, it’s getting dark and you know how they are!” 

“I don’t work well under pressure, Bill!” a bespeckled boy exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Oh for christ’s sake, Perce!” Bill muttered, speedily striding towards his brother,”Sometimes I think Ginny would be better than you at scavenging.” 

“Don’t leave your post!” The second boy cried urgently.

“Don’t make me!” Bill said heatedly, beginning load canned food into the back of a beige pickup at a rapid pace.

“Would you two stop squabbling?” An older redhead whispered aggressively, striding out from behind a dusty shelf”If you don’t keep quiet you’ll attract them! You are both adults, act like it!”

Instead of choosing to respond the two younger men glowered at one another, loading essentials onto their mode of transport wordlessly.

“Percy, got take watch.” the older man commanded.

“What? Dad that’s Bill’s job!”

“He’s also getting your job done faster than you are.”

“Fine.” Percy seethed, moodily making his way to the front doors, a broken “open” sign hanging on it’s hinges nearby. Instead of keeping watch, he surveyed the convenience store that the trio of men were scavenging. It was hard to imagine it as once having been open, hordes of people walking casually down the aisles, wondering what brand of toothpaste they should buy today. Bored cashiers, mostly teenagers like he was just a few months ago, waiting for their shift to finish were now hard to understand. It was hard to believe that all he had once cared about were his grades. He had thought his family wasn’t well off, but hadn’t thought to think of their working plumbing, delicious meals or unconditional love. He had resented his parents for making him look stupid in front of Penelope Clearwater or not having enough money to buy him a new school uniform. Now he couldn’t believe he had been that ungrateful. 

The way in which the world had transformed itself into left no room for luxury or hate. Now all you cared about was living to see your brothers again or gathering enough food to feed your mother and sister. Percy had never taken into account, never been appreciative of the raw feeling of just being alive. Every day, waking up, the knowledge that he had survived another day in the hell everyone called life… it was an amazing sensation. 

It was probably the only good that came out of this situation. This place had probably once been a goldmine but had been raided by other desperate survivors. The touch of other living souls in this room was so palpable yet so imperceptible that it made his mind reel. You could feel the ghost of a desperate mother, hurrying to grab as many supplies as possible before making her way back to her children, trying to get ahead of the hoard of them. You could feel the desperate group of survivors, grabbing as much as they could carry only to later be intercepted and murdered by a group of them. The ghost of a little girl, begging for a candy bar, or an old man wondering what to buy his grandchild for their sixth birthday. It was so real, yet so fabricated. 

“Percy!” he was startled from his thoughts by his father, jittery as he commanded his son back. The young man could tell he was eager to get back to camp. It still felt wrong to not be heading back to the burrow, but it had been overrun - Ottery St. Catchpole was surprisingly populated. He still had nightmares about Amos and Cedric Diggory’s snarling undead faces.

Shaking the thoughts away, he jogged to the car, his father had already started the engine. Seeing Bill in the passenger seat, he climbed into the back of the pickup, pushing some cans out of the way so he could sit. Bill handed him a shotgun from his open window, Percy took it and checked the canister - 6 rounds. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to use any. He really wasn’t very good with guns that was more Charlie’s forte, but he wasn’t here. As they pulled away from the convenience store, the red head was reminded of how much he hated riding in the back of the truck. 

They were silent as they rattled along, the Weasley patriarch going at a steady speed, accidentally stopping at a stop sign even. Percy was getting antsy, you never knew when one - or twenty would suddenly round a corner. He just wanted to get back to camp, safety in numbers after all. He could tell he wasn’t the only one, his father’s back was tense and Bill was nervously drumming his fingers. 

They made it without incident for all of three blocks, Percy spotted one of them exit an alleyway, snarl and begin to follow them. 

“You got it, Perce?” Bill asked, seeing the walking corpse through his side mirror. 

Shakily taking a breath, Percy nodded, his father obediently stepped on the breaks and Percy pulled an axe from his belt. The corpse came nearer and nearer, walking as fast as it could. Percy stood up and once it was in range, he shakily exhaled before swinging at its head. It was down with the one blow, collapsing as Percy pulled the axe from it’s head.

Bill nodded solemnly at him and they continued on their way. Percy took a long time unwinding, just seeing one of the undead put him on edge. Being close enough for it to reach him and bite… it made him uneasy to say the least. 

They made it back to camp without further interference with the dead. 

No matter how riled Percy was, the sight of his makeshift home was enough to soothe his nerves, if only slightly. His mother’s relief at seeing them gave Percy an odd sensation - something between happiness and sadness. It seemed that Molly Weasley especially had grown more than a few gray hairs after all of this began. Her worry for her family was unrivaled. The untimely murder of her twin brothers was most likely the cause of that. 

“Arthur” She breathed, hugging her husband and pecking him on the lips. The matriarch quickly released her husband though, and set upon her eldest son.

“Bill” she said in relief, tightly embracing him.

“Mum, you’re smothering me.” he said jokingly.

“Oh hush you.” Molly said, lightly slapping his back before scanning the area for a third family member.

“Percy.” She said, muffled as she pulled him into a hug. Eighteen and still awkward, the bespeckled boy stiffly returned the embrace. As Molly pulled away she frowned and turned Percy’s head to the side, she tutted,”You boys are all due for a haircut.”

Percy pulled a strand into his line of vision, he supposed it was getting a bit long, though it was nowhere near Bill’s mane. On the other hand, that was more of a style choice. Unlike his brother’s though, he hardly had to worry about his facial hair, it just refused to grow. Almost all of the men in his family were clean-shaven though and he supposed they had reason. He envied Ron though, fourteen and he had a goldmine of facial hair - he said he didn’t want it though. 

“Who’s going to help me unload all of this?” interrupted his father.

While almost the entire clan, excluding Molly and Ron grudgingly made their way to the trunk of the car; Percy didn’t feel up to it and retreated to his part of camp, a lean-to with a patterned and fraying blanket on the ground along with a thin wool blanket and a pile of books. Books were a rare luxury in this new world but Percy took the time to read them, it was something he felt his family judged him for. His mother though of course defended him, she said that he should be allowed to have a pass time. Nobody openly disagreed with her but Percy could tell… he could tell. 

Books weren’t essentials of course, so he was stuck with seven of the same. His favorite to reread was “A Tale of Two Cities”, it didn’t seem like the type of book he’d enjoy (he wasn’t a fan of drama, mostly informational texts), but the story was so good that his normal dislike was rejected. This of course was the book he picked up and began to reread.

“How bad was it?” 

Percy jumped in his spot, narrowly avoiding crashing down his lean-to, he glared at his sister, the one who’d interrupted his rare moment of peace.

“Why can’t you ask Dad or Bill, can’t you tell I’m busy?”

“They won’t tell me anything, they never do.” Ginny said in annoyance,”They don’t treat me like an adult, I can handle whatever they have to say.”

“Well you aren’t an adult. If they aren’t telling you anything then neither am I.” Percy returned to his book. To his dismay, Ginny plopped down next to him.

“Nobody lets me do anything.” she said crossly,”The least they could do is tell me what’s going on.”

Percy ignored her.

“I mean, I’m better than Ron at shooting! I bet I could take one of them on better than you could, Perce.”

That struck a nerve,”For fuck’s sake Ginny!” he said in a heated tone,”Consider yourself lucky. You haven’t come face to face with one of them. You haven’t had to look into their eyes, dead eyes - something that used to be human! Somebody who used to have a family, friends, a bloody life! When you practice shooting it’s completely different from the real thing, you are killing somebody! I don’t give a fuck what everybody else says, that thing is or at least used to be one of us and you are killing them!”

Percy took a deep breath, he didn’t want to say anything he regretted, turning on his heel, he instead retreated into the woods. He left Ginny speechless and guilty behind him. 

 

“So who’s on watch tonight?” Charlie asked conversationally as he chewed his canned beans, almost the Weasley clan was sitting around the fire as the sky above grew dark. Arthur was eating a candy bar. Molly was cutting Ron’s hair as he moaned and complained, waiting on his meal to finish heating. Fred and George had started talking about the foods that they wished they had access too. Bill was tending to the fire and Ginny watched him. Percy however, was nowhere to be seen.

“George is.” Ron said,”He made a big - ow! deal about it too.”

“How do you know it was George?” One of the twins, presumably Fred asked.

“Because you’d be even worse about it.” Charlie interceded.

“You flatter me.” Fred said in response while George looked indignant.

As the Charlie and the twins bantered Arthur frowned,”Where’s Percy gone off to?”

“Percy?” Molly asked, releasing Ron, deciding his haircut was done,”I haven’t seen him since you boys got back, isn’t he reading?”

“It’s too dark to be reading without a source of light.” Bill said reasonably.

A quiet,”Oh…” came from Ginny.

Molly sharply turned to her daughter,”What do you mean, ‘oh’?”

Ginny shrank under Molly’s glare,”I… well maybe an hour after you guys got back Percy and me had a fight. He, um… he went into the woods, I didn’t notice he didn’t come back…”

Molly was speechless.

“Shit.” breathed Bill, Molly didn’t chastise his swearing.

“We need to find him.” Arthur said with a tangible worry radiating from him,”Charlie, Fred, George you come along with me to find him. Bill stay here with your mother, brother and sister.”

Molly seemed to regain her voice,”Ginerva Weasley.” she began dangerously,”Are you telling me that you watched your brother go into the woods, told nobody and didn’t think to announce it until hours after he disappeared?”

“Come on, we’re going now!” Arthur said, a frantic tone to his voice.

“Dad.” Bill began unsurely,”With it being this dark do you really think we’ll be able to find Percy? And the dead are more active during night and-”

“Bill-”

“You are in huge trouble missy. And once your brother gets back here, and he will, you two will serve your punishment together.” Molly resumed.

“Are we going or not? Percy could be hurt! He could be dying!” Ron began.

“Oh, fuck.” Fred or George mumbled.

“What?” Arthur asked irritably.

Whichever twin it was wordlessly pointed towards the road. Everybody stopped their arguments and turned, less then a mile away was a huge hoard of the dead were shuffling towards them.

“Fuck.” Charlie breathed.

“Everybody grab a fucking weapon and as much food as you can carry, then get in a fucking car.” Bill said, immediately taking charge.

“But Percy!” Ginny cried.

Fred and George pulled her from her rooted spot and pushed her into the back of a jeep before grabbing a few supplies, throwing them in the vehicle are starting the gas. Charlie ran alongside and jumped into the backseat next to their sister, Ron also managed to squish in. Bill ushered his parents into the pickup truck, putting his father in the back with a shotgun and then stepping on the gas.

“We can’t leave him!” Molly cried, sobbing as she watched the dead set upon their camp and temporary home.

“Mum we have to.” Bill said steelily, blinking away his own tears,”For now we just need to get as far away from here as we can.”

Molly made a half-hearted attempt to exit the car but Bill kept her from doing so, she was crying as she pounded her fists on the dashboard. Bill stoically kept the vehicle moving, following Fred and George.

“Fuck, Perce.” he breathed,”Of all the times to wander off.”

 

Five hours earlier

Stomping into the forest, Percy tried to calm himself. A trembling hand ran itself through his hair, what he’d said surprised him as much as it had shocked Ginny. He wasn’t even aware of the inner thoughts he’d screamed at his sister. He wondered what else his brain hid from him, or repressed. Maybe he had a mental disorder. One thing he knew for sure was that when this was all over, if it ever ended, everybody would have some sort of PTSD. 

A sudden crack from behind him made Percy spin around, wide eyed, he surveyed the scene. He was only now becoming aware of how loud he’d been, biting his lip he pulled his axe from his belt. He suddenly felt very defenseless without his gun. When he heard growling he became very worried, he couldn’t detect where it was coming from so spun around in a circle. When he turned around a third time he was scared out of his mind to see one of the living dead less then a foot from his face and reaching its arms out. Percy cried out as the thing tackled him, he pushed the things head back with his bare hands, fighting to get its jaws and nails away. 

Internally he was wondering if he had any wounds, even a papercut that could be infected by a drop of this thing coming into contact with him. He came up empty and continued to struggle with the dead man, his axe had fallen out of his reach. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” he muttered under his breath, holding the thing back with only one hand now as he tried to reach his weapon, it was so close. Percy panicked when he saw a second pair of shoes on the forest floor and looked up to see a second walker, throwing it all to fate he pushed himself with his feet closer to the axe, the first deadhead got its lips on Percy’s hand. Giving a battle cry, the youngman swung the axe with all his might, closing his eyes and mouth as black blood poured from the now permanently dead walker. Not forgetting about the second walking deadhead, he quickly wiped the blood from his eyes, opened them and scanned the forest for the second sonuvabitch. His eyes didn’t betray him and soon enough Percy had killed it, panting, he sat down with a tree to his back, taking a moment. 

The fight had made him lose all sense of direction though, and the only thing Percy wanted was to get back to his family. Frowning, he scanned the trees nearby and followed the one he believed led back to camp. After walking for a good hour, he started to think that he had gone the wrong way, his surroundings were all wrong and it hadn’t taken this long to get to where he’d been.

Hopelessly lost and worried, he turned around and doubled back, however he couldn’t find his previous location, or anywhere familiar. He worried that if he remained isolated like this for much longer things wouldn’t end well. Safety in numbers after all. After wandering for some time, he found himself in a completely unrecognizable part of the forest but it had a creek. The camp had a creek that ran right through it and while this creek may very well be completely different and he wasn’t sure to go upstream or downstream (he didn’t even know which was which at this point), it was his best shot. So Percy ventured along the creek bed, things still didn’t look familiar but he held out hope. When he spotted a tent he was relieved, but then he realized, nobody in his family had a tent that looked the way that one did, he’d stumbled across another survivor’s camp.

Percy’s initial reaction was one of ecstatic joy but then he realized, the apocalypse changed people and who knows who he might’ve stumbled upon. Perhaps even multiple people who could team up on him, kidnap him… he turned around and began to walk away at a fast pace but the sound of clattering logs stopped him. 

He anxiously turned around, and was shocked at the person who stood before him.

“Percy?” The brown haired boy asked.

“Oliver.” the red-head breathed.


End file.
